Builders ‘side step rules’ on affordable homes in city

DEVELOPERS are exploiting loopholes in planning regulations to avoid providing affordable housing in the city, Freedom of Information figures have revealed.

In a joint investigation, the Birmingham Post’s online sister brand BirminghamLive and HuffPost UK, show how Birmingham City Council is failing its promise to secure affordable housing as part of new developments, barely achieving 10 per cent of its promised 35 per cent figure.

Figures show that, of the 4,768 houses approved for development in 2016/17, only 425 were lower cost housing.

Housing experts say the lack of affordable housing impacts everyone from those attempting to get on the first rung of the housing ladder, those in the private renting sectors whose rents are soaring due to high demand, and those waiting on the social housing list.

But house builders are allowed to side step rules on affordable housing if they can show that providing discounted homes would stop the development making a profit.

Like many others his age stuck in private renting, Craig Griffiths, 36, assumed he would have a house by now. The Birmingham hairstylist has been renting for a “depressing” 18 years, and despite saving £14,000 is no closer to buying a place of his own.

He is just one of the many people in the city struggling to get on the housing ladder who is directly affected impacted by a lack of affordable homes.

Craig says he has been told that he might need a deposit of between £35,000 and £50,000 to buy, and will probably have to move out of the city to find somewhere he can afford.

“It’s so depressing, and my rent keeps going up,” he says. “My friends pay £400 a month on their mortgages whereas I pay £750. I’m that desperate to get on the housing ladder that I’m going to have to consider moving up to an hour away from where my work is, and where all my friends live.”

Buying is important to him because he believes it will give him security when he is older, especially as he is freelance and therefore does not have a pension or get sick pay.

He says it annoys him that Birmingham doesn’t seem to be addressing the issue.

“When I go and visit my mum in Shropshire, there are so many new houses and flats going up, whereas here in Birmingham, it’s all old people’s homes or luxury apartments,” he sighs.

“I saw some flats being built and got excited, but then saw they were going for £250,000.”

Last year, housing charity Shelter revealed that during 2015/16, Birmingham developers behind the construction of 2,916 homes were able to backtrack on promises to deliver 1,003 of them at the affordable rate by arguing that their profits would be unfairly hit.

The problem also impacts on people trying to get social housing. In the West Midlands, there are 97,526 households on the social housing waiting list, according to figures from 2017, but there are just 37,840 available lettings. In Birmingham alone, there is a deficit of 3,135 social rent lettings.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, knows that stories like Craig’s are all too common. She says the social housing waiting list “a national scandal” that is happening right across the country including in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

“People are being condemned to a life of unstable and expensive renting, forcing them out of areas they can no longer afford to live in,” she says.

“But if we want to build enough genuinely affordable housing, we need to be prepared to pay for it.

“This means bringing down the mammoth cost of land and getting rid of planning loopholes that make it too easy for developers to wriggle out of building affordable homes.”

Polly Neate, of Shelter (right)